Scientists Will Study Moon's Surface During The Lunar Eclipse

And as NASA notes, some folks call the second full moon in a single month a blue moon. But the scientists are looking forward to the lunar eclipse that night, which offers an unusual chance to study the moon's surface.

Jan. 31 will bring the third supermoon in a row, the second full moon of January and a total lunar eclipse, all at the same time. We'll only have three this winter, so the January 31 full moon won't be blue by this definition.

"Weather permitting, the West Coast, Alaska and Hawaii will have a spectacular view of totality from start to finish", he said.

The moon orbits the Earth in an ellipse, not a circle. First up? Blue moons.

Starting Anew - According to Refinery 29, those of Wiccan faith consider any blood moon which occurs in October to be "a compelling time to build, to begin, to create" and also a good time to shed old habits. If that sounds familiar, it's because there was already a supermoon this month, on January 1, making the one later this month a "super blue moon".

"Unfortunately, eclipse viewing will be more challenging in the Eastern time zone", he continued.

Mitch Lumen at the Evansville Museum said the Tri-State won't have the best view but the blood moon will start to appear at 6 a.m. next Wednesday until sunrise. At the peak of daytime on the moon, it is about 100 degrees Celsius, hot enough to boil water just by leaving it out.

Resident should set their alarms to 5:52 a.m., MST, on January 31 if they want view a total lunar eclipse. Because the sun rises just 16 minutes later, they'll only be able to see the beginnings of the eclipse. The moon is fully in Earth's shadow. The blue colors within the white light are filtered out, and then the remainder of the light is refracted onto the moon by our atmosphere, leaving the eery red tones you'll see in the sky. Instead, it will take on a reddish tint as the lunar eclipse takes place.

Unlike the Sun's eclipse, visible from relatively small areas of the Earth, a moon's eclipse is visible from anywhere on the Earth's side that is night.

When is the next lunar eclipse?

What causes a lunar eclipse?

The last time a total lunar eclipse was visible in Miami was on December 21, 2010, which also happened to be the winter solstice - a rare event that hadn't happened since 1638.